Thule Society (Earth-616)
| Title = Hydra | EditorialNames = | Aliases = Cathari, Sons of Anubis, Ariosophists, Wotanists, Seven Kings, Black Order, the Green Society, Red Society, Holy Order, Order of the Hydra, Thule Society, Thule, Hydra | Status = Defunct | Identity = Secret | Universe = Earth-616 | BaseOfOperations = Formerly active in Mesopotamia; Macedonian Empire; Jutland; Drache Castle, Germany | OrganizationLeaders = Formerly Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, Lord Gidim, Lord Mormo, Draugr | CurrentMembers = | FormerMembers = Lord Gidim, Brother Nastoth, Lord Mormo, Draugr, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, Red Skull, Dr. Nikolaus Geist, Lt. Dmitri, Ghost-Throwers, Thule Priests (including Igor); possibly Doctor Garibaldi | Allies = Nazi Germany; ---- Covers or infiltrated organizations: Red Army Faction/Baader-Meinhof Gang, German People's Union, Der Republikaners, Neo-Nazis; formerly Holy Office of the Inquisition | Enemies = Invaders, Atlanteans, German Freedom League | Origin = Occult society | PlaceOfFormation = | PlaceOfDefunction = | Creators = | First = | HistoryText = The occultist organization later known as the Thule Society was an ancient order of sorcerer-scientists with no real name and outlived the cultures from which they sprang. They were totally dedicated to their cause, rising above death, hold the power of life and death and be as the Gods. Among their plans, they searched for immortality for about 6,000 years. Every aspect of history, politics, science, magic and faith has been influenced by them and their many "tentacles", and the very art of alchemy was a by-product of their Infinitas agenda. Early History Mesopotamia In 2671 B.C., in Mesopotamia, Lord Gidim and his "holy order" had Brother Nashtoth look for over a year for the bones of Gilgamesh, which the great king had wanted to preserve from them. They finally managed to retrieve it (after fourteen months and seventeen tombs), in the House of Dust. Ancient Greece In 323 B.C., after Alexander the Great's death, Lord Mormo of the Order of the Hydra went to the Temple of Athena on the Acropolis of Phaselis, Lycia, to retrieve the Spear of Achilles and his blood crusted into its blade, the key to immortality. China Qin Dynasty In 209 B.C., Qin Shi Huang sent his court sorcerer Xú Fú to the immortal Anqi Sheng for the Elixir of Life. Anqi Sheng sent him away, asking for a certain price, and so Xú Fú returned with the gith of the emperor, tree thousand children, pure and from the very best families. Anqi Sheng was pleased by the gift and gave Xú Fú a component of the Elixir, enraging Xú Fú, and killed the offering. Medieval period In 710 A.D., in the Town of Ribe in Jutland, helped by Strybiorn and his men, Hydra sorcerer Draugr buried the bones of Eggther (a giant who had stolen the arrow of Hoder), in order to retrieve the arrow, a weapon capable of killing a god. Hydra was known at some period as the Cathari. 15th Century Torquemada was one of the tentacles of Hydra, as were the Medicis. 16th Century In 1522 A.D., on the Banks of the Caloosahatchee River in Florida, Count Duende attacked his cousin Juan Ponce de León y Figueroa, slaughtering his men and asking him for the Fountain of Youth. As de León told mocked him, stating there was no such Fountain there, Duende stabbed him and set the place for people to thinks natives had caused the slaughter. Hydra managed to manipulate and use the Holy Office of the Inquisition. In 1537 A.D., in Spain, Hydra members of the Holy Office of the Inquisition tried Dr. Garibaldi for his researches on the eternal life. As Garibaldi refused to confess an heresy, the inquisitors revealed themselves as Hydra members and offered to recruit him. 19th Century Napoléon was one of the tentacles of Hydra. 20th Century The Order was known for some time as the Ariosophist (meddling esoteric content and Nazism), the Wotanists (racist worshipers of Wotan), the Black Order, the Sons of Anubis, the Seven Kings, the Green and the Red Societies, then the Thule Society. World War II On their side, despite despising Hitler and his plans, Geist, Baron Strucker and the Thule supported the Nazis, using them to access and pillage vaults and libraries in nearly every nation, including France, Italy, Russia, Egypt, in order to collect the rarest and most obscure of forbidden knowledge (magic, alchemy, physics...). For Hydra, Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini were nothing more than individual tentacles. 1942 In February 1942, Red Skull and Baron Strucker belonged to the Thule Society. The Skull spent months tracking ancient myths, looking for an ancient, powerfull weapon to destroy his enemies. Using the dead language of a Gypsy tribe the Skull exterminated and sacrificing numerous Atlanteans, the Thule priests performed a ritual to invoke the Hammer of Skadi, which landed in Antarctica. The Skull went on an expedition to find his prize, but the hammer could not be lifted. He told Strucker that what they found was on a crate destined for Hitler, but had secretly instructed the Thule agents to stay and guard the hammer. They errected a stronghold around the hammer, guarding it and studing it for decades, kept from aging by Nazi superscience. The Skull kept this finding a secret from everyone, documenting his expedition in a sorcery book the Thule made out of Atlantean flesh and hidding the book in a secret lair in the Egyptian desert. The Thule Society later adquired the Kraken, a weapon of Lemurian origin and ungodly power that they pillaged from the Atlanteans. Their scientists created an abomination from Atlantean corpses, as only an Atlantean could wield the Kraken. They were planning to test their new creation on the Allied troops during a battle, but both the weapon and the wielder were destroyed by Prince Namor of Atlantis. The Kraken was latter repaired by the Covenant, a secret society dedicated to protecting the world from the occult who had informed Namor of Thule's activities. They also captured the scientist who created the abomination and forced him to abandon Thule and join them. As Namor refused to join their ranks, they needed him to created more abominations so they may wield the power of the Kraken for their own purposes. 1943 When Hitler wanted Thule's leader Baron von Strucker dead after his several failures, he escaped in Japan with the help of the Red Skull. Here, Strucker joined the Skull's organization, renamed it Hydra, killing its leader and becoming the new Supreme Hydra. Strucker later regained Hitler's favour and he returned in Germany, operating as a loyal Nazi but secretly leading both Hydra and Thule Society. 1944 In 1944, Thule scientist Nikolaus Geist started his Infinitas Agenda, a program with the purpose of creating an army of superpowered soldiers. They were temporarily stopped by Captain America, his sidekick Bucky and German Freedom League agent Trude Lohn. Legacy During the Cold War, Hydra kept on its activities, the Red Army Faction/Baader-Meinhof Gang, the German People's Union, Der Republikaners and Neo-Nazis being some of their new faces in Germany, pursuing the goal of obtaining eternal life through science. The German Freedom League who had opposed the Thules kept fighting them, smuggling scientists under duress from their organizations. Nikolaus Geist was absorbed into Hydra by Baron Strucker, where they continued Thule's Infinitas Agenda. After World War II, the Thule Society's members, possibly as part of Hydra, infiltrated several espionage secret agencies, including Atlas Foundation. Fear Itself The Thule members placed by the Red Skull in 1942 to protect the Hammer of Skadi, in Fortress Null, tried to protect the Hammer when the Skull's daughter, Sin, arrived in Antarctica to reclaim it for herself. They were finally defeated by Sin's assault forces. After Sin had successfully taken the Hammer of Skadi, she found Thule Society's Security Drones in her father's Egyptian secret base. Sin then used Thule's Drones to help her in her attempt to control the world. Later, after Sin's defeat, an occult neo-Nazi group composed of Thule members' descendants, the Hammer of Thule, became operative in the United States, carrying on their predecessors' mission. | Equipment = | Transportation = | Weapons = Thule Security Drones | Notes = | Trivia = | Links = }} Category:Historical Organizations